The unChurch is about living the faith in the power of God's spirit. It is not about debating "How to Do Church Correctly". But occasionally we see an article that combines the two. The "Seven Shifts" below are swiped from a fine article by Eric Swanson on the "Ten Shifts Churches Must Make" to be effective. That's right, I axed the three that pick at the "technology of Church", leaving only Seven Shifts.
These 7 grabbed me because they go to the heart of what it is to follow Jesus.
To Succeed in the Missio Dei, Churches (People) Must Shift From...
1. From Building Walls to Building Bridges
“nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket,
but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all... (Mt 5:15)
2. From Measuring Attendance to Measuring Impact
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast...mixed
into a large amount of flour until it’s worked
all through the dough” (Matthew 13:33)
3. From "Attracting Saints to Services" to "Sending Servants"
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve and to give…” (Mark 10:45)
4. From Competitive Duplication to Partnering
“'Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers hands?' And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same." (Luke 10:36, 37)
5. From "Social Fellowship" to "Functional Fellowship"
"From Jesus, his whole body, fit and held together by
what every connection supplies, according to the proper
working of each individual part, causes body to
grow and build itself up by love." (Ephesians 4:16)
6. From Condemning the City to Blessing the City
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which
I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord
for it, because if it prospers, you too will
prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7)
7. From Ministering in a Congregation to Ministering in a community.
“As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city,
he wept over it…” (Luke 19:41)
Which of these shifts make you think how you and your crew can
better bring the life of God crashing into Planet Earth?
Go do it.
JoeB
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8 comments:
Good one or seven.
So you're saying they ought to quit being churches and be something else?
Yes.
Or, more accurately, they should quit being something else and start being churches.
^Please note that my above comment needed an emoticon to indicate lightheartedness. :-)
No emoticon taken!
Maybe if the "seven" were taken seriously believers would stop building multi-million dollar facilities which they can't pay for!
I'll take a three year commitment. Will it make my church bigger?
Okay, knock off the Levitr-y!
This article is not about the mistakes of others, but about the Way of Jesus.
My job here is not to think, it's to enforce what we are to think about. So, back to the task at hand...do these seven shifts represent a step closer to the movement that Jesus unleashed in the earth? Or did that movement end with the "apostles & disciples" who delivered us to a Church Age of "entrepreneurs and joiners"?
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